Foran’s season from hell gets worse
Kiwi veteran Kieran Foran’s nightmare time at Canterbury is all but over, after the injury-prone playmaker suffered a suspected torn pectoral in Canterbury’s 18-14 loss to Gold Coast yesterday.
And now the fight will be on to extend his NRL career, with his contract set to expire at the end of the season, and the former Kiwis international on the lookout for a new club following the recent signing of another experienced playmaker in Blake Green.
Foran had single-handedly willed the Bulldogs back into a dour contest at ANZ Stadium when he produced a trademark try from close range to pull his team within four, midway through the second half.
But the 30-year-old exited the field soon after following an attempted tackle on Titans fullback AJ Brimson, immediately raising fears of another right shoulder reconstruction after last year’s surgery.
Scans are expected to confirm Foran has played his final game for the club.
‘‘Possible torn pec — the boys are shattered for him,’’ Bulldogs interim coach Steve Georgallis said post-game.
‘‘He’s been our form player for the last six weeks. He’s giving 100 per cent every week. The players are shattered for him, they just walked up to him and made sure he was okay.
‘‘It’s really disappointing for him.’’ As Foran was being attended to by medical staff, the Titans restored their eight-point advantage with a unique try to Anthony Don set up by a crossfield kick from wing parter Corey Thompson.
Canterbury halfback Lachlan Lewis set up a tense finish when he breezed past counterpart Jamal Fogarty in the 72nd minute, but the Titans held on to claim consecutive wins for the first time in almost 18 months.
Gold Coast coach Justin Holbrook
was thrilled with the victory, which came despite losing Brian Kelly and Jaimin Joliffe to ankle injuries in the opening 10 minutes.
‘‘When I think about all that, I’m really happy we won the game. And that’s the main thing. I thought we played really good in the first half and then we were just hanging on in the second half,’’ Holbrook said.
‘‘That’s a good sign too. I thought it showed the character of the boys to be down two guys early and just keep hanging in there and come away with a win.
‘‘We couldn’t have done that earlier in the year.’’
Fogarty was among their most impressive performers, with frontrower Moeaki Fotuaikia also shining with a game-high 201 metres off the bench.
It was the sixth straight defeat, and
12th in 13 games, for the Bulldogs, who remain on track to finish with the wooden spoon for the first time since 2008.
And there was more bad news with key front-rower Dylan Napa also failing to finish the match after picking up suspected knee and shoulder injuries from the same attempted tackle on Brimson.
Wests Tigers wing Adam Doueihi scored a late try and kicked the goal to give them an unlikely 34-32 win over Manly last night. Manly led 30-16 with 14 minutes left but the Tigers roared back and scored three tries through Doueihi (2) and hat-trick hero David Nofoaluma.
They kept their outside top-eight hopes alive, but need a run of results to go their way to overtake the Sharks who sit in eighth, with the NZ Warriors also in the hunt.